Sometimes called "Star Cactus", because of the hairy star shaped bloom. It is not a cactus, but is a succulent which is native to tropical areas and grows wild on some beaches in Florida. The bloom has an unpleasent odor to attract flies for the purpose of pollination.

Just starting to set flower buds (9/21/03). Flowers every fall for me.

Grown in Georgia.

I have great success propagating this plant. I wait all year for this beautiful bloom. As you will note I can expect quite a few more this year.

I am waiting in anticipation for the others to bloom

This is the first time I've had flowers, and in fact it's only a 3 year old plant. I've never even bothered to identify it until these huge buds began opening. So far there are 14 of them. My care of it could be described as "benign neglect"

The "rotten meat" smell became suddenly very intense in the room, that's when I noticed the fly doing it's job of pollinating. This bloom has now been open for 4 days and several others now look ready to open.

After removing the first blossom after 5 days the rest of these opened (7). The only time the strong odor is emitted is when the hairs are disturbed..either by moving or by flies crawling over them.

have had this plant for 10 years and it never bloomed, moved to florida and it bloomed the first year. I keep it ouside and cover it when temps get low.

growing outdoors in Southern California in hot sun

An explosion of blooms and flies!

Two flowers getting ready to the right.

Seed pods

Stapelia Gigantea in bloom attracting flies.

Stapelia gigantea; St. Petersburg, Florida; Zone 9b; June 2005.

this one had 3 blooms at same time and 7 more "pods", unopened

Prolific bloomer

Finally, a good bloom that did not curl back. This one was 12.5" from tip to tip.

A close-up view of the flower. This plant was given to me by another gardener around March. I was fortunate to have blooms in less than a year.